Study on the ultimate strength of internal stiffened square tubular T-joints

Elastic-plastic large deformation finite element is used to study the behavior of the square tubular T- joints by ANSYS software. the influence of the parameters including the position, the number, the thickness, the size of the hole of the internal stiffener and the non-dimension parameters on the joint's strength were studied, stress distribution, plastic-zone development, failure mode and ultimate strength of the joints were analyzed, and the influence of the ring stiffeners on the joint behavior were observed. The effect of various geometric parameters of the joint on its behavior and ultimate strength were investigated. The present research shows that the ring stiffeners are installed insider the chord to improve the strength and deformation performance. In the end some of suggestions are proposed for the benefit of project design and construction.